CNN may have thought it was engaging viewers in a serious debate when it asked if an undocumented journalist should be removed from the United States, but instead the news outlet found itself in the middle of a Twitter firestorm.

The online controversy centers on the story of journalist Jose
Antonio Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter and Huffington
Post editor who recently unveiled that he is an undocumented
immigrant.

Writing in the New York Times Magazine, Vargas explained that
over the course of his life, he’s tried to live the American
dream and carve out a place for himself in the United States.

“But I am still an undocumented immigrant. And that means
living a different kind of reality,” he wrote. “It means
going about my day in fear of being found out. It means rarely
trusting people, even those closest to me, with who I really am.
It means keeping my family photos in a shoebox rather than
displaying them on shelves in my home, so friends don’t ask about
them.

“It means reluctantly, even painfully, doing things I know
are wrong and unlawful. And it has meant relying on a sort of
21st-century underground railroad of supporters, people who took
an interest in my future and took risks for me.”

This past Sunday, CNN aired a documentary – titled, “Documented”
– that explored Vargas’ decision to declare his status publically
and speak out about the plight of illegal immigrants.

That same evening, the network also sent out the following tweet,
asking, “Do you think Jose should be deported? Answer with
JOSESTAY or JOSEGO using #Documented.”

The post quickly came under fire from those who accused CNN of
making light of the issue, or turning the topic of Vargas’ plight
into a game. Critics of the tweet called it out for turning
immigration into “a TV contest,” with some claiming the network
“should be ashamed of itself.”

Do you think @CNN should
be ashamed of itself? Answer with #CNNSHAME
or...well...that's actually the only reasonable response.

“At a time of political standstill, with reporters calling
immigration reform, ‘dead,’ we gotta humanize this issue. Asking
‘JoseGo’ and ‘JoseStay’ is a way of asking my fellow Americans,
‘What do you want to do with me? What do you want to do with
us?’”

The issue has once again arrived at the forefront of US politics
recently, with President Obama announcing on Monday that, in the
face of Republican unwillingness to pass any kind of reform, he
will take executive action on the issue. He is currently seeking
recommendations from his staff, and is expected to consider them
by the end of the summer.

His comments also came as the US government struggles to manage a
flood of undocumented minors entering the US through Mexico. As
RT has reported previously, tens of thousands of
children from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador have flowed
over the Mexican border, sparking what Obama called a
“humanitarian crises,” and pushing him to tell Central
American families to stop sending their children to the US on
their own.

As for Vargas, in his New York Times Magazine article he
emphasized that illegal immigrants are a significant part of
American life and culture despite their ostracized status.

“There are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants
in the United States,” he wrote. “We’re not always who
you think we are. Some pick your strawberries or care for your
children. Some are in high school or college. And some, it turns
out, write news articles you might read.

“I grew up here. This is my home. Yet even though I think of
myself as an American and consider America my country, my country
doesn’t think of me as one of its own.”